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Enjoyment Rules!

“Don’t take life so seriously, you’ll never get out alive.” – Van Wilder

When we take ourselves or our lives too seriously, one of the first things to fall to the wayside is our joy. In 2013, I made it a point to keep things simple and to flood my life with more enjoyment. The result was moving my way through challenges, transitions and expansion with much greater ease than I’ve ever experienced before. Today, I want to show you how so you can set this intention for 2014 and watch the magic unfold in your life, too.

More enjoyment leads to higher vibes, less sweating of small stuff, and, as a fitness professional, I can say with certainty a flatter belly (for reasons ranging from hormones to the fact that your abs contract when you laugh).

Enjoyment Rules has a double meaning.
– Enjoyment rules! As in rocks, kicks ass, is #1.
– I wrote some rules of enjoyment. There are five enjoyment rules you can follow for a much more pleasurable lifestyle.

#1. Begin with gratitude
I’m guessing that as a reader of The Daily Love you’re no stranger to a gratitude practice. In case you are, here’s my suggestion for getting started. In a journal, or just to yourself, begin or end each day by listing at least 3-5 things you’re grateful for. You can do this by yourself or get your friends and loved ones involved. To keep yourself accountable, set an alarm or a reminder on your phone to go off at the same time every day. Commit to this practice and watch the magic unfold.

Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money, wrote, “Sufficiency isn’t an amount at all. It is an experience, a context we generate, a declaration, a knowing that there is enough, and that we are enough.”

A gratitude practice is one of the best ways to let the Universe know we see that we have enough, we appreciate it, and we invite in more.

#3. Shift your mindset toward enjoyment
Imagine you could manage your mindset with a dial – I’m inviting you to turn your dial to the ENJOYMENT setting here. Three things that stand between us and our joy every day are struggle, sacrifice and scarcity. These mindsets are common and easy to fall back on. Awareness is more than half of the battle sometimes – so realize when you are in struggle mode, sacrificing your joy for someone or something else, or operating in a scarcity mentality (there isn’t enough to go around [money, love, success, etc]).

Use this mantra to snap yourself back into ENJOYMENT, “I am meant to enjoy my life.”

#4. Do an enjoyment audit/upgrade
Take a look at the everyday tasks in your life – the things you kind of can’t avoid doing – and ask “how can I make this more enjoyable?”

I’ll give you an example. I hate looking at my money – this applies to my personal and my business finances. What I’ve done to make it more enjoyable is I’ll light some candles, enjoy a cup of tea or a glass of wine, put on some music that makes me feel good and create an enjoyable environment to do my bookkeeping in.

This might sound silly, but trust me, it makes a difference.

Same goes for doing the dishes, sitting in traffic, and folding laundry or anything else that’s less than desirable but non-negotiable.

#5. Say The Enjoyment Prayer at least once/day

Holy Mother, Father, God, Universe, Source, Shakti, Beloved [or insert whatever it is you pray to],
make me a magnet for joy. Please fill my day with opportunities for enjoyment and pleasure. Help me engage my senses to experience delight in even the most mundane tasks. Lead me away from struggle, sacrifice, and scarcity and move me towards that which feels good and raises my vibration. Make me a force for good and let my enjoyment be contagious to those around me.

Thank you, I love you, Amen and so it is.

Here’s that list of 19 ways to get you started and a LOVE CHALLENGE – can we get the list over 100 with your ideas in the comments?!

Whatever you’re doing, slow down and engage your senses… we miss out on seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting a lot when we rush.

Wear lipstick/lipgloss. I used to hate on girls at the gym who wore makeup until I tried it and realized that looking pretty means feeling good about yourself. Mission accomplished. I blogged about this here.

Bring a friend, or two or three.

Dress up when you would have normally just worn your PJs or workout clothes.

Light a candle. Candles make everything feel more relaxing and indulgent.

Experiment with more enjoyable ways to move your body than your same old workouts you’ve been doing forever.

Drop someone a random thank you note, card, or call. Gratitude is a major enjoyment booster!

Give someone the greatest hug they’ve ever received.

Get some essential oils – fragrance can switch up your mood in an instant.

Do something that the 7-year-old you would have done and screw what anybody around you thinks (ideas: ride a swing at a playground, cannonball into a pool, cartwheel, play a friendly prank on someone, sing, dance, roll around on the ground, draw, color, paint…)

Your turn, in the comments tell me your favorite way to add enjoyment to any day and let’s get our list over 100!

Love,

Liz

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Liz DiAlto is a women’s body & soul coach, speaker, and writer. She is the founder of the Soul Movement Salon, a thriving private Facebook community where women come together to have transparent conversations about all things body, mind and soul and the forthcoming movement experience The 2xONE Method. Connect with her via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and her website.

This is kismet, Lindsey- I had two separate discussions about play just yesterday. Love the pic at the top of this post 🙂

The Daily Love

So great to hear this, Lindsey… Wishing you much joy. -TDL Team

Ginger Noble Sweeney

Love, love, love your article! I will make enjoyment of my life my 2014 intention, with your ideas. Some of the things I do to enjoy my life now include: listening to music and dancing when I do housework, laying in the sun for a nap in the afternoon, and laying on my hammock during the summer months. Ahhhh, this is a blessed existence, sweet sister!

Liz DiAlto

Ginger, laying in the sun for a nap – or even just soaking it up for a few minutes at any point in the day is such a good one! And hammocks are always divine – thank you for sharing!

The Daily Love

This is a blessed existence indeed, Ginger… We’re enjoying the ride as much as you are 🙂 -TDL Team

Mary Catherine

Love this! love the prayer 🙂 Feeling lighter already. Thanks Liz!

The Daily Love

Thanks for sharing, Mary Catherine… Love hearing that it impacted you. -TDL Team

Stephanie Slatt

I loved this! We really do take ourselves too seriously most of the time and enjoyment can really change things around. It’s so important to remember this because sometimes we forget that we have the awesome power of being able to make other people’s lives better and more enjoyable too! Such an awesome opportunity. I love to send people hand written notes as a way to brighten their day. It’s all about remembered to be a team player. My blog post for today talks about this and shares an amazing inspirational short video! Check it out 🙂 http://geton3.com/a-bit-of-awesome/

Liz DiAlto

Great call on handwritten notes, Stephanie. A friend of mine got me in the habit last year of keeping thank you cards in my bag and leaving them for random people like waiters, baristas, hairdressers, etc. Thanks for reminding me to stock back up – I really love the power of the handwritten note!

The Daily Love

We LOVE handwritten thank you notes also… Such a small, but powerful way to express gratitude towards others. Thanks for sharing, Stephanie! -TDL Team

megred

I absolutely love this blog. Thank you so much for sharing such instructive inspiration. You really provided tangible ideas that I can and want to incorporate into my life and with which to start this year off right! 🙂 Much love and gratitude!

Liz DiAlto

thank you so much for this comment, can’t tell ya how good it feels to see people taking action – enjoy! (pun intended!!)

The Daily Love

Thank you so much for reading and sharing! We’re so happy that Liz’s article impacted you 🙂 -TDL Team

Manuel Vadilo

hi

emilyffoster

If I’m feeling really bad, sometimes I’ll just throw my shoulders back and pretend Im catwalking down the street. Just that simple adjustment, which is silly, really shifts my mood, makes me feel prettier and also laugh at myself.

Liz DiAlto

I love this Emily – changing your physiology definitely has an immediate impact on the mood. I’m in LA now btw, are you here or in NYC?